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 A HISTORY OF SUSSEX and being light of foot could escape to the woods when the enemy- turned upon them. At last Elle divided his army into two portions, one to keep off these attacks, and the other to press the siege of the town. Famine did what force had failed to do, the place was taken, and the Saxons, enraged at their heavy losses, slew men, women and children, leaving not one alive, and destroyed the town. From this year, 491, dates the establishment of the South Saxon kingdom, which at once reached the zenith of its power. Elle being the most influential of the contemporary Saxon chiefs in Britain was afterwards considered to have been the first Bretwalda,' though it is unlikely that he could have gained any such supremacy over the island as the later Bretwaldas held. On his death in 514, Cissa his son suc- ceeded him and handed the kingdom on to his descendants, whose rule grew gradually feebler^ until Sussex was absorbed into the rising kingdom of Wessex. This event possibly took place about 607,^ when Ceolwulf, king of Wessex, fought a great battle with the men of Sussex, in which both sides lost heavily, but the advantage lay with Wessex.* A consider- able degree of independence must have been preserved or regained by Sussex, as in 661 we have mention of Ethelwold, king of Sussex, who was persuaded in that year by Wulfhere of Mercia, who had over-run Wessex, to become a Christian, Wulfhere himself being his sponsor and rewarding him with the grant of the Isle of Wight and the province of the Meonwaras in Hampshire.^ In 685, however, Cedwalla, king of Wessex, recovered the Isle of Wight and slew Ethelwold, but was driven out of the kingdom by the South Saxon generals [duces) Berthun and Audhun," who continued to rule Sussex until the former was killed by Cedwalla.'' At the same time the Sussex forces had lent their aid to Edric son of Egbert, and, after defeating and slaying King Lothere, had placed Edric on the throne of Kent.^ Some forty years later this ten- dency to support other men's quarrels brought trouble upon the South Saxons. In 722 Ine, Ced walla's son, having compelled Aldbricht his enemy to flee into Surrey and Sussex, where he apparently got together a sufficient following to become a source of danger to Ine, moved into Sussex and fought a successful action in which Aldbricht was killed.' Although the South Saxons were apparently subject to, or at least within the sphere of influence of Wessex, they continued to have rulers of their own whose names are recorded only in contemporary charters, and who attest, for the most part indiff^erently, as ' Rex ' or ' Dux.' Thus Wattus occurs as king about 700, and Nunna, to whom coins are doubt- fully ascribed,'" about the same time ; Osmund and Ealdwulf, who appear as both ' Rex ' and ' Dux,' Ealweald and Ethelbert, who each attest as « Ren. of Huntingdon (Rolls Ser.), 51. ^ Ibid. 47. 3 Ric. de Cirencester (Rolls Ser.), 43, says that Sussex fell to Ceaulin, king of Wessex, about 590. « Hen. of Huntingdon (Rolls Ser.), 55. ^ Ibid. 61. « Ibid. 102. ' Ric. de Cirencester (Rolls Ser.), 203. s Hen. of Huntingdon (Rolls Ser.), 105. William of Malmesbury names Edric as the successor of Ethelwold in Sussex. Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), 33. » Ibid. "> Hawkins, Silver Coins of England (3rd ed.), 29. 482